I am reading a lot of posts about how people think Taylor was still HBO's boy last night. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lamps was all over Pavlik and Harold Lederman's card was silly-biased. The broadcast was so pro-Ghost it was sickening. The 5-minute get to know Kelly segment before the fight, and the blatent kelly-cheering made it clear to me that HBO was hoping Pavlik would win. After all, Taylor made it clear that if he won he was going to move up in class and HBO has made a point of showcasing the Middleweight division forever. Taylor winning and vacating would have been bad for them. They were two uppercuts in the second round from their nightmare. All they could talk about was how open Taylor was to be hit and yet, somehow, Pavlik had the lower connect %. I never liked Taylor. I still think Hopkins got robbed in their 1st fight, but now i know how HBO works and yes. . . it's bad for boxing. But hey. . . they have their new house middleweight. And his name is unisexual.
I noticed Larry Merchant was very, extremely nice & respectful to Pavlik in post fight interview, where he usually more of a *****.
merchant really likes pavlik. could be racial who knows. I do know this, after kellys one fight, i think it was miranda, merchant went off on this rambling about youngstown, OH and this boxer there. Now, he made no sense whatsoever, but he clearly showed a love for kelly or just youngstown, OH. But Pavlik is a cool dude though, seems like a guy anyone can like. You would have to be a real son-of-a-***** to not like him. Real down to earth guy.
Pavlik is a class act and a likeable guy, but Jermaine is a really good guy also..Either way, I still think that Larry really was kissing up to Pavlik and smiling along with him more than he usually does other boxers.
look, larry loves the gore of boxing any smart fighter (meaning one who doesnt want to go to war if he doesnt have to) will find himself in merchants wrath i thought HBO was very fair to JT, hell, how can anyone not like JT, he seems like a great guy
It isn't HBO's fault that 5000 Pavlik fans came from Ohio to support Kelly. Both JT and Kelly are great. And they are a class act . This was a great fight. I thought HBO did a fine job in the production part of this fight also. Great advertisment and the countdown to the fight was cool. The commentary was swing from Pavlik a little, where they should be nuetral, but JT had all the right tools to win this fight. The fight took place in his home town and had he Stewart in his corner. I don't think HBO is hurting boxing at all, but helping it. They need to get away from the PPV's for awhile to get some fans back from the MMA.
